While Nintendo decidedly played it safe with their versus E3 Nintendo Direct announcements, one game in particular seemed to be missing -- "Metroid."

Of course Retro -- the masterminds behind the amazing "Prime" trilogy -- is the "no duh" dev for orchestrating a new Samus adventure. One problem though; they're currently deep in development for "Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze." When asked if there were any plans for a new "Metroid" game they told IGN:

"Well, we love Metroid. We love Metroid Prime and we always will. It was a big part of our studio, the culture of the studio. The majority of that team is still at Retro," Kelbaugh said. "When we finished with DK, we still had a lot of really cool ideas. That, in combination with what the Wii U could do, we really wanted to continue with that. Again, Retro Studios loves Metroid. We might do another one someday. But we really enjoyed working with DK as well."

After the mixed fan response to "Other M," Nintendo may be a little frosty on the aspect for more "Metroid" games. However IGN writer Richard George managed to corner Kensuke Tanabe, an XO at Nintendo, and he mentioned that focus might "expand the whole Samus universe" much like the DS launch title "Metroid Prime Hunters."

What do you say? Would you be able to wrap your head around a Samus-less "Metoid?"